1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments generally relate to the field of fluoropolymers, and to the preparation and use of silane-functionalized fluoropolymers. The silane functionalized fluoropolymer provides a novel means of crosslinking fluoropolymers and adhering fluoropolymers to substrates. In particular, this disclosure relates to silane-functionalized coatings as those that may be useful for applying a top layer coating onto a fuser roll used in printing and copying operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical electrostatographic printing apparatus, a light image of an original to be copied is recorded in the form of an electrostatic latent image upon a photosensitive member and the latent image is subsequently rendered visible by the application of electroscopic thermoplastic resin particles which are commonly referred to as toner. The visible toner image is then in a loose powdered form and can be easily disturbed or destroyed. The toner image is usually fixed or fused upon a support which may be a photosensitive member itself or other support sheet such as plain paper.
The use of thermal energy for fixing toner images onto a support member is well known. In order to fuse electroscopic toner material onto a support surface permanently by heat, it is necessary to elevate the temperature of the toner material to a point at which the constituents of the toner material coalesce and become tacky. This heating causes the toner to flow to some extent into the fibers or pores of the support member. Thereafter, as the toner material cools, solidification of the toner material causes the toner material to be firmly bonded to the support.
Typically, thermoplastic resin particles are fused to the substrate by heating to a temperature of between about 90° C. to about 160° C. or higher depending upon the softening range of the particular resin used in the toner. It is not desirable, however, to raise the temperature of the substrate substantially higher than about 200° C. because of the tendency of the substrate to discolor at such elevated temperatures, particularly when the substrate is paper.
Several approaches to thermal fusing of electroscopic toner images have been described in the prior art. These methods include providing the application of heat and pressure substantially concurrently by various means: a roll pair maintained in pressure contact; a belt member in pressure contact with a roll; and the like. Heat may be applied by heating one or both of the rolls, plate members or belt members. The fusing of the toner particles takes place when the proper combination of heat, pressure and contact time is provided. The balancing of these parameters to bring about the fusing of the toner particles is well known in the art, and they can be adjusted to suit particular machines or process conditions.
During operation of a fusing system in which heat is applied to cause thermal fusing of the toner particles onto a support both the toner image and the support are passed through a nip formed between the roll pair, or plate or belt members. The concurrent transfer of heat and the application of pressure in the nip affect the fusing of the toner image onto the support. It is important in the fusing process that no offset of the toner particles from the support to the fuser member take place during normal operations. Toner particles that offset onto the fuser member may subsequently transfer to other parts of the machine or onto the support in subsequent copying cycles, thus increasing the background or interfering with the material being copied there. The referred to “hot offset” occurs when the temperature of the toner is increased to a point where the toner particles liquefy and a splitting of the molten toner takes place during the fusing operation with a portion remaining on the fuser member. The hot offset temperature or degradation to the hot offset temperature is a measure of the release property of the fuser roll, and accordingly it is desired to provide a fusing surface, which has a low surfaced energy to provide the necessary release. To ensure and maintain good release properties of the fuser roll, it has become customary to apply release agents to the fuser roll during the fusing operation. Typically these materials are applied as thin films of for example, silicone oils to prevent toner offset.
One the earliest and successful fusing systems involved the use of silicone elastomer fusing surfaces, such as a roll with a silicone oil release agent which could be delivered to the fuser roll by a silicone elastomer donor roll. The silicone elastomers and silicone oil release agents used in such systems are described in numerous patents and fairly collectively illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,087 to Heeks, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
While highly successful in providing a fusing surface with a very low surface energy to provide excellent release properties to ensure that the toner is completely released from the fuser roll during the fusing operation, these systems suffer from a significant deterioration in physical properties over time in a fusing environment. In particular, the silicone oil release agent tends to penetrate the surface of the silicone elastomer fuser members resulting in swelling of the body of the elastomer causing major mechanical failure including debonding of the elastomer from the substrate, softening and reduced toughness of the elastomer causing it to chunk out and crumble, contaminating the machine and providing nonuniform delivery of release agent. Furthermore, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,087, additional deterioration of physical properties of silicone elastomers results from the oxidative crosslinking, particularly of a fuser roll at elevated temperatures.
Fuser and fixing rolls may be prepared by applying one or more layers to a suitable substrate. Cylindrical fuser and fixer rolls, for example, may be prepared by applying all elastomer or fluoroelastomer to an aluminum cylinder. The coated roll is heated to cure the elastomer. Such processing is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,501,881; 5,512,409; and 5,729,813; the disclosure of each of which is incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,205, which is incorporated in its entirety herein, provides a process for providing an elastomer surface on a fusing system member. Generally, the process includes forming a solvent solution/dispersion by mixing a fluoroelastomer dissolved in a solvent such as methyl ethyl ketone and methyl isobutyl ketone, a dehydrofluorinating agent such as a base, for example the basic metal oxides, MgO and/or Ca(OH)2, and a nucleophilic curing agent such as VC-50 which incorporates an accelerator and a crosslinking agent, and coating the solvent solution/dispersion onto the substrate. Commonly used fluoropolymer crosslinkers are bisphenol-A and bisphenol AF that are known to react with unsaturated positions on fluoropolymer chains. The surface is then stepwise heat cured. Prior to the stepwise heat curing, ball milling is usually performed for from 2 to 24 hours.
Current fuser rolls may be composed of reinforced silicone with a crosslinked fluoropolymer as the top layer. These rolls fail at shorter times than desirable, primarily due to edge wear and poor release at the surface (offset). Fluoropolymer can withstand high temperature (>200°) and pressure conditions and exhibit chemical stability and low surface energy, i.e. release properties.
A more mechanically robust coating is required for new generation fusing systems in order to improve lifetime and diminish the occurrence of roll failure due to edge wear. Higher thermal conductivity of the top layer would improve heat retention at the surface during fusing, and electrical conductivity would dissipate any static charge buildup.
Fluoropolymer is conventionally cured by peroxides, amines, or phenols. When using peroxides a special cure site monomer is required, and peroxide curing is not preferred for fuser members. Amine curing was an early method to cure fluoropolymer. However, amine cured fluoropolymer shows susceptibility to moisture and hydrolysis. Curing with phenols results in hydrolytically stable fluoroelasotomers, but requires the use of basic metal oxide particles to serve as dehydrofluorinating agents to neutralize the hydrofluoric acid that is released from the fluoropolymer during the curing reaction. Since these particles are present during the curing reaction, it is difficult to remove them from the cured fluoroelastomer. The presence of the metal oxide particles in a fuser outer coating layer can result in degradation of the fused image. Further, the particles may have a tendency to migrate or “bloom” to the surface of the coating on the fuser member, and further shorten the life of the fuser member. An alternative crosslinking approach for fluoropolymer could be used to modify the material properties. Improvements of mechanical properties such as wear or changing surface interactions to improve release would extend fuser roll life.
The disclosure contained herein describes attempts to address one or more of the problems described above.